Page 66 of Obsidian Dream

“What is my name?”he repeated, ready to be disappointed and fight his way back to reality.

She stared at him as if he had two heads.“Douche.”

Talik’s grip on her loosened fractionally.

“You have a cut on your cheek.”Khalida finished rinsing the cloth before she leaned over to Talik, wiping his face gently.“Why would you ask me for your name?”

A wave of tiredness hit him as he slowly lowered himself to the stone floor, reluctantly releasing his grip on her.He opened his mouth to tell her about Ninhursag, the dream.A god didn’t have that much power—he refused to let them have that much power.The words formed in his throat, but he couldn’t make the sound, unable to confess what had happened.Ninhursag’s voice echoed through his mind.Her words haunted his every thought.

You wouldn’t want to be responsible for another loved one’s death, would you?

Concern filtered across Khalida’s face as a small incision appeared on her right cheek, and a single drop of blood slowly slid down her face.She didn’t appear to notice.

Talik froze, unable to think.He wanted to scream at the world, but the world had never promised him any sort of fairness.Why would it start now?“You were being nice to me.I wanted to make sure it was really you and not some concussion-induced hallucination.”

Half-truths were easier to use, harder for Khalida to detect the lie.

The Anki had played their first hand, but it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t try again.

“You have been unconscious for an hour.”

Khalida moved away from him, and he felt the loss of her warmth like a kick to his guts.As she walked, her boots sloshed on the ground.Water droplets dripped from her calves.She must have waded through some puddles.Khalida hated bodies of water.Fuck, she even hated baths if she couldn’t touch either side of the tub at the same time.There was no way she would voluntarily walk through a pool of water, even if it was only up to her ankles.He’d always made fun of the fear, laughed that an Atlantean, whose original home had been an island, was terrified of water.Until Sidra’s death.

“You said some things when you were unconscious,” Khalida gently prodded, as if she was asking about the weather.

His heart raced.What had he said?

“About being your fault?What were you thinking about?”

Talik swallowed, the pain momentarily forgotten as the memory of Ninhursag slammed into him.

He laughed, but it sounded false even to him.“It must have been the venom.”

Khalida opened her mouth as if she was going to argue but shrugged instead.She took a step, moving back into pitch darkness so he was just left with the shadows playing in the flashlight.

“If you are done with nap time, I may have found a way out.”